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OT: SLU Drops SAT/ACT Requirement


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Per the P-D, SLU will no longer require applicants to submit standardized test scores:

https://www.stltoday.com/news/local/education/slu-to-drop-admission-requirements-for-act-sat-in-2021/article_5c56930a-b73b-5bf3-a99e-da3b444ab91d.html

I suppose this is a good thing?  Is there a downside to this?

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13 minutes ago, Box and Won said:

I'd feel a little better if Wash U. were doing it.

Harvard, Penn, Cornell, Davidson, Tufts, BU, Northeastern, Tulane, Amherst, Williams, Vassar, VT, Baylor, the University of California system, and over 100 others have done the same.

SLU will be fine.

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I suspect it is a blend of (i) a genuine goal to diversity the student population by recruiting smart, hard-working kids who don't necessary test well--perhaps due to socio-economic bias--and (ii) improving SLU's objective ranking metrics. How would improve the objective metrics? Presumably, the kids with good GPAs who don't provide test scores will have their GPAs factored into the averages without dragging down the university's average ACT and SAT scores. Kids with high test scores will certainly want to submit them, and those will comprise the university's average test scores. 

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This is just all code for, "i f'd off in high school but i can really make up for it in college if you just let me in." 

Meanwhile the actual hard working prepared deserving student has to be held back in class letting these non-achievers catch up.   

Our country continues to go downhill.

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1 hour ago, Pistol said:

Harvard, Penn, Cornell, Davidson, Tufts, BU, Northeastern, Tulane, Amherst, Williams, Vassar, VT, Baylor, the University of California system, and over 100 others have done the same.

SLU will be fine.

meramec did this also

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1 hour ago, Box and Won said:

Per the P-D, SLU will no longer require applicants to submit standardized test scores:

https://www.stltoday.com/news/local/education/slu-to-drop-admission-requirements-for-act-sat-in-2021/article_5c56930a-b73b-5bf3-a99e-da3b444ab91d.html

I suppose this is a good thing?  Is there a downside to this?

For students like me that had really good grades but were horrible standardized test takers this is a good thing. 

When I was researching grad schools, I looked for schools that did not require a GRE.

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42 minutes ago, billiken_roy said:

This is just all code for, "i f'd off in high school but i can really make up for it in college if you just let me in." 

Meanwhile the actual hard working prepared deserving student has to be held back in class letting these non-achievers catch up.   

Our country continues to go downhill.

I think it is closer to the opposite.  It puts more weight on your actual performance (i.e. grades in high school).  People who test well and f off in high school can often find schools that will take them based on ACT/SAT scores.

Instead this says that for whatever reason if someone does not test well, but has shown good grades, good extracurriculars, and otherwise shows to be a good student that they can now more easily be accepted to SLU.  ACT/SAT certainly is not a perfect predictor of collegiate academic performance and post-graduate success.  Its predictive ability is lessened further when you isolate the variance due to socioeconomic factors.

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43 minutes ago, billiken_roy said:

This is just all code for, "i f'd off in high school but i can really make up for it in college if you just let me in." 

Meanwhile the actual hard working prepared deserving student has to be held back in class letting these non-achievers catch up.   

Our country continues to go downhill.

Doesn’t this benefit the exact opposite kids of what you describe?

This helps the kid who works his ass off and earns a 3.75 but bombs the ACT a lot more than the guy who slacks off earns a 2.5 but gets a 30 on the ACT.

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Just now, SLU_Lax said:

I think it is closer to the opposite.  It puts more weight on your actual performance (i.e. grades in high school).  People who test well and f off in high school can often find schools that will take them based on ACT/SAT scores.

Instead this says that for whatever reason if someone does not test well, but has shown good grades, good extracurriculars, and otherwise shows to be a good student that they can now more easily be accepted to SLU.  ACT/SAT certainly is not a perfect predictor of collegiate academic performance and post-graduate success.  Its predictive ability is lessened further when you isolate the variance due to socioeconomic factors.

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In other words, top colleges will continue to pull most of their students from the best high schools, get the top students from average high schools and get the valedictorians and salutatorians from poor schools.  Which is basically what they do now.  The test scores are for outliers.  And they will continue to use them to identify outliers.  They just won't require them for everybody else.

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10 minutes ago, dlarry said:

Doesn’t this benefit the exact opposite kids of what you describe?

This helps the kid who works his ass off and earns a 3.75 but bombs the ACT a lot more than the guy who slacks off earns a 2.5 but gets a 30 on the ACT.

i would think you need to ace both to get in a great school.   i know my kids did.  

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56 minutes ago, billiken_roy said:

This is just all code for, "i f'd off in high school but i can really make up for it in college if you just let me in." 

Meanwhile the actual hard working prepared deserving student has to be held back in class letting these non-achievers catch up.   

Our country continues to go downhill.

That isn't the take. 

This would reward the person who worked hard in high school, got a 3.whatever, but screwed themselves on the ACT/SAT. 

Trust me, SLU has been letting the "i screwed around in high school but got a good test score" brigade in since at least 2002. I am living proof.

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Many of the Ivy League schools have for years not used class rank for admission and they are fine.  This is a trend and honestly, it tends to reward kids who are great students but simply do not test well.  For years  kids who  had a high IQs could get in Gifted programs until people realized that a high IQ does not translate into high performance.  Now most Gifted Programs use a variety of metrics to determine if your IQ  is high enough to do the rigorous work but do you also have the dedication to actually do the work.  This is not a big deal as long as the school puts in other metrics to find the best kids.

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